The Epic Game Store is the hate object for every Steam lover, the home of Fortnite fans, and a “I get free games here” platform for pretty much everyone else. On December 25th, the free game “Death Stranding: Director’s Cut” was offered as a gift, but it turned out to be too popular. The gift caused server crashes and was withdrawn after about an hour: After that, only the standard version was available. Epic Games explains what really happened.
This was the plan: Epic Game Store usually gives away games weekly, between November 24 and December 1 there was something like “Star Wars Squadrons.”
But before Christmas, they wanted to ramp it up and switched to: “A new free game every day.” Since December 15, players can get a free PC game every day, such as Wolfenstein: The New Order (December 20) or 3 games from the Fallout series (December 22).
From December 25 to 26, there was supposed to be a special treat, the “Director’s Cut” of Death Stranding, a game from 2019 by the cult game designer Hideo Kojima (59). The Japanese game developer has built his legendary reputation over 35 years with the “Metal Gear Solid” series and many brilliant ideas.
That it was really supposed to be the “Director’s Cut” and not just the standard version was confirmed by customer support staff to curious inquirers: This can be read on reddit.
Surge on Director’s Cut caused the servers to crash
What happened then? Death Stranding is not an ordinary game, but a game that caused a huge hype at release. After all, Hideo Kojima is considered by many to be something like “the master of game development.” So it’s a game that you might as well pick up for free even if you generally don’t care for the genre.
Thanks to the Director’s Cut, the download on Epic Games Store was even interesting for those who had already played through the base game three years ago at release and were now hoping for free content.
When the Director’s Cut was made available for free, people apparently flooded Epic Games so much that the servers crashed. On Christmas Day, you have time for such things.
How did Epic Games react? Epic Games replaced the “Death Stranding: Director’s Cut” version with the “Death Stranding: Standard Edition” after about an hour:
- Those who had previously downloaded the Director’s Cut could keep it – and even download the Standard Edition too
- Those who had not downloaded the Director’s Cut right away could only download the Standard Edition and otherwise missed out
The “Director’s Cut” was allegedly a mistake, should never have been released
What happened there? As Epic Games reported on Weibo in China, an Epic employee made the mistake of releasing the “Director’s Cut” edition by replacing the standard version with the Director’s Cut.
However, there was no agreement with the publisher; Epic was only allowed to release the standard version.
Currently, they are discussing the next steps with the publisher (via reddit).
What is the difference between the two versions? The “Director’s Cut” version has items, abilities, features, missions, and mods that are not available in the standard version: For example, there is a shooting range for players to test their skills, or a racetrack.
Meanwhile, Death Stranding 2 has already been announced:
If Death Stranding 2 really turns out like the trailer, a great successor is coming our way
